[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[crazy canuck]

All Western Canadian wheat must be sold through the wheat board.  Ontario wheat farmers can sell on their own.

Interesting.  That is not what the Act says.  There must be some regulation? From the Act...

5. The Corporation is incorporated with the object of marketing in an orderly manner, in interprovincial and export trade, grain grown in Canada.

[crazy canuck]

All wheat is sold through the wheat board.  It was set up to get the best price for Canadian wheat on international markets.  Problem is a lot of farmers think they can do better if they sell on their own.

We have a similar system for diary products, chicken and eggs and talk is those are not long for this world either.

Presumably some farmers think they will lose out too?  The story I heard was focused on a referendum of farmers in some province or another that voted to keep it (nonbinding obviously).

Yes there are some farmers who want to keep the Wheat Board.  There is currently a court challenge to the governments ability to repeal the legislation.  The argument is weak though.  It amounts to saying that the corporation created by statute must first agree to being abolished before the government can take such action.  ie the corporation gets the final say over whether the statute will continue or not.

[Sheilbh]

All wheat is sold through the wheat board.  It was set up to get the best price for Canadian wheat on international markets.  Problem is a lot of farmers think they can do better if they sell on their own.

Interesting.  The Australians used to have a thing like that - I think Howard's privatisation of it was one of his big achievements. 

[crazy canuck]

As I understand it the main concerns are two fold:

1) price certainty.  The farmers have to plant and make expenditures on best guesses as to what price the Wheat Board will actually pay for their grain.  But the wheat board may set a lower price than expected and if the farmer has budgeted on having the higher expected price they are a bit screwed.  I heard one farmer explain he doesnt know any other business model where the producer takes all the risk but has no ability to set the price.

2) production quotas.  A farmer could be very productive but unable to sell all their grain if they reach their quota limit.  This might be the best argument for keeping the Wheat Board as it may prevent over supply.  But it cetainly has a downside.

[Admiral Yi]

Does Canada have commodities futures?

[crazy canuck]

Does Canada have commodities futures?

I am not sure.  I didnt know that Ontario farmers are not subject to the Wheat Board and I dont know how they sell their wheat.  I think the idea is that future type contracts would be entered into in place of the Wheat Board.

[Neil]

I don't really have a strong opinion on the Wheat Board.  I don't really have much firsthand knowledge of it, as I have spent more and more time becoming less and less concerned with rural affairs.  That said, I'm a little worried by the fact that the most vocal opponents of the CWB that I know personally are huge advocates of American-style health care, which calls their judgement into question.

I suppose that in the end it's like the gun registry:  I don't have a dog in the fight, but I'll back the government that I helped get elected.

[Neil]

Does Canada have commodities futures?

I am not sure.  I didnt know that Ontario farmers are not subject to the Wheat Board and I dont know how they sell their wheat.  I think the idea is that future type contracts would be entered into in place of the Wheat Board.

Ontario farmers have their own marketing board, but membership is voluntary.  As I understand it, a lot of producers are a part of that.  I would imagine that we'll see something similar in the West.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Yes but we all know that side effect warnings cause people to think the side effects are more prevalent than they actually are - as well as the fact that some listed side effects aren't actually side effects but simply conditions that happened to occur concurrent with medication usage.

any remote chance of anal fissures is too big of a chance, I'm jus' sayin.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

How would you judge the Conservative record, now with their free reigns?

So far, it doesn't seem like the sky has come down upon our heads.

[Buddha]Lots of jails being built, I heard. Now that's progress. not sheesh. really more prisons? that's a job creationist right there (oh now there is a political jackpot if you could somehow tie creationism into more jobs you could be POTUS or maybe PM.) otherwise they are also sending more DRM etc nonsense down our throats, repackaged stuff that eventualy we will get blase enough to let in, then we can all take up residence in the new BMG music prison and press cds or whatever outdated tech the big entertainment companies are hanging on to with their velicoraptor talons. [/buddha]

[crazy canuck]

From the Globe and Mail. 

The U.S. government is threatening to cancel its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program unless Congress approves a credible deficit reduction plan, a move that would risk derailing Canada's plans to purchase 65 of the next-generation stealth jets.

U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta includes the F-35 program in a detailed list of items that could be on the chopping block should a so-called "super committee" fail to deliver on a plan to find $1.2-trillion-in savings over the next 10 years.

On the bright side the Conservatives can bring the budget back into surplus faster.

[Barrister]

How would you judge the Conservative record, now with their free reigns?

So far, it doesn't seem like the sky has come down upon our heads.

[Buddha]Lots of jails being built, I heard. Now that's progress. not sheesh. really more prisons? that's a job creationist right there (oh now there is a political jackpot if you could somehow tie creationism into more jobs you could be POTUS or maybe PM.) otherwise they are also sending more DRM etc nonsense down our throats, repackaged stuff that eventualy we will get blase enough to let in, then we can all take up residence in the new BMG music prison and press cds or whatever outdated tech the big entertainment companies are hanging on to with their velicoraptor talons. [/buddha]

The problem actually is that with some of those new minimum sentences, we should be expanding prison facilities, but we aren't.  And I'm okay with that, but I would like to see the conservatives come clean a bit more on precisely what the effects of these changes will be.

[dps]

1) price certainty.  The farmers have to plant and make expenditures on best guesses as to what price the Wheat Board will actually pay for their grain.  But the wheat board may set a lower price than expected and if the farmer has budgeted on having the higher expected price they are a bit screwed.  I heard one farmer explain he doesnt know any other business model where the producer takes all the risk but has no ability to set the price.

Any commody producer is in that position unless the prices are set by fiat before production (planting in the case of a farmer) begins.  Doing away with the wheat board wouldn't change that.  If the farmer is growing something that is a luxuray-type crop (with a limited number of farms producing it), then he has some ability to set prices, but not with a commodity like wheat.  Commody producers are price takers, not price setters.

2) production quotas.  A farmer could be very productive but unable to sell all their grain if they reach their quota limit.  This might be the best argument for keeping the Wheat Board as it may prevent over supply.  But it cetainly has a downside.

The "downside" to overproduction of wheat is cheaper bread for consumers.  I don't see that as a problem.

[Grey Fox]

From the Globe and Mail. 

The U.S. government is threatening to cancel its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program unless Congress approves a credible deficit reduction plan, a move that would risk derailing Canada's plans to purchase 65 of the next-generation stealth jets.

U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta includes the F-35 program in a detailed list of items that could be on the chopping block should a so-called "super committee" fail to deliver on a plan to find $1.2-trillion-in savings over the next 10 years.

On the bright side the Conservatives can bring the budget back into surplus faster.

Or use the money to build a deep see port in the artic & buy a couple of nuclear powered icebreakers.

[crazy canuck]

Any commody producer is in that position unless the prices are set by fiat before production (planting in the case of a farmer) begins.  Doing away with the wheat board wouldn't change that.  If the farmer is growing something that is a luxuray-type crop (with a limited number of farms producing it), then he has some ability to set prices, but not with a commodity like wheat.  Commody producers are price takers, not price setters.

Not if the producer has a form of contract which provides for price certainty.  If a producer knows how much per bushel he will be paid then he can plan accordingly.  At least that is the argument being made by the farmers who want to get out of this system.

What you are talking about is fluctuations in commodity prices and the risk of those fluctuations can be negotiated.

The "downside" to overproduction of wheat is cheaper bread for consumers.  I don't see that as a problem.

If you were a farmer you might.